Exploring Explore

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It’s late here, and I’m super tired, but I wanted to get in one last post before I crash for the night. And no, my deliriously tired state is not the reason for my strange choice of blog post titles. In this post I’m going to bite the bullet and explain to everyone the ins and outs of my new job as an Assistant Director at Explore Learning (American name still TBD), and then I promise I will go straight to sleep and leave you fine interweb people alone.

So in a nutshell what I do is help run a tutoring center. Each center is headed up by one Director and two Assistant Directors. Basically, the Assistant Directors (ADs) do all the grunt work and the Directors (CDs for Center Directors), who have all been ADs before and have been promoted, teach the ADs how to do said grunt work. The business side of the center is based on sales (getting people to join), retention (keeping the members we have), and finances (makin’ papuuhhh).

Life in the centers is a bit more complicated. Directors (that’s ADs and CDs. Still got it?) have all the above responsibilities, but also look after and mentor tutors and make sure kids stay on track work-wise. And during “show time” (the hours between 3:30pm and 8:00pm, when the kids are out of school and in the centers) all this work has to happen in the not so dull roar of lively, excited kids and tutors doing their best to make learning fun (they usually succeed, FYI. It’s a pretty great place).

I went in for my first center visit Friday afternoon to check things out before I start full time on Tuesday. I met my training Center Director, Kat, who is wonderful. She’s really on the ball and a super hard worker, but she’s also got a really goofy and fun side. Needless to say we get along well. I also got to meet some of the tutors, who were all really sweet. The kids. Are. Adorable. English kids are smaller than American kids. I don’t know if its the all the sugary cereals or the boat loads of hormone-pumped cow milk, but American kids are big. The kids in my center are tiny and adorable and say cute things like “Can you call daddy?” and “When can I start my first session?” Ok it doesn’t sound so cute when you read it, but imagine it being said by a small English voice and you just might melt down to your toes. It’s precious.

Anyway, being in the center was great and it made me really excited to learn everything it’ll take to run our center in Dallas. And super nervous to one day run our center in Dallas. It’s a lot to take in, but the one thing that always reassures me is the complete and total satisfaction and joy that the people who work at Explore get from their jobs. The company is absolutely amazing and it really treats its employees well. Everyone is incredibly excited and passionate about their jobs and it makes me confident that I’m going to love it at this company, not only in the UK but in a few short months when I get home to the great state of Texas.

 

One Of These Things Is (Not) Like The Other

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Everything feels fancier in England. Even the every-day run of the mill buildings, used for things as mundane as shoe stores and McDonald’s restaurants, are stunning and ornate. A lot of the buildings Brits just live life in every day are older than our entire nation. It kind of blows my mind to think about.

But it’s so weird, even being (pause for google lookup) over 5,000 miles away from home, so many things are so very similar. People, for example. By and large, wherever we’ve gone they’re really nice. People are happy to answer questions we have when we’re lost or need a recommendation for a good place to eat dinner. It makes me feel at home, like people are looking out for me wherever I am.

The landscape, too. Granted, I haven’t been too far out of London yet, and I know the countryside varies a lot from place to place, but really, it looks like Texas. I shit you not, people. Greener, wetter Texas. Not all parts of Texas, of course, but the vast green fields and ranches in the more rural areas around London remind me of the land southeast of Dallas. The slight hills remind me of the Austin area. And I bet when I get a chance to go down to Brighton with my new housemate, Emma, the soft waves at the beach will remind me of my very own Corpus Christi Bay.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying England is a carbon copy of the states. There are HUGE differences. First of all, there’s NO AIR CONDITIONING. Anywhere. not in houses, not in cars, rarely in restaurants; its not common. On unseasonably warm days citizens just have to grin and bear it. I can’t imagine. Though, I am enjoying the cold night air coming in from my window now. But really, I wouldn’t trade my temperature control for an open window.

They talk different too. Obviously, I know, but it’s funny the little things I’m noticing in their speech patterns that separate our two accents. Their inflections are different, for one. For example, when Americans ask a question our voice gradually gets higher towards the end of our sentences. When Brits ask a question, however, their pitch peaks at the word before the last word, and then comes back down when they say the last word. Does that make sense in writing? If it does, try it out. You’ll sound British without changing one vowel sound.

There’s a billion more differences between our countries, and I’m sure just as many more similarities. I’m SO looking forward to discovering them in the months ahead!